Every major version of Mac OS X macOS has come with a new default wallpaper. As you can see, I have collected them all here.
While great in their day, the early wallpapers are now quite small in the world of 5K displays.
Major props to the world-class designer who does all the art of Relay FM, the mysterious @forgottentowel, for upscaling some of these for modern screens.
If you want to see detailed screenshots of every release of OS X, click here.
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10.0 Cheetah & 10.1 Puma
The first two releases of Mac OS X shared the same wallpaper. The sweeping blue arcs and curves helped set the tone of the new Aqua interface.
10.2 Jaguar
Jaguar took the same Aqua-inspired theme but added some depth and motion to things. In my head, the trails streaking across the screen were from a set of comets.
10.3 Panther
While Panther inflicted Macs everywhere with Brushed Metal, its wallpaper stayed on brand, refreshing the original 10.0 image.
10.4 Tiger
Many consider Tiger to be the best “classic” version of Mac OS X. While that may or may not be true, it has my favorite Aqua-inspired wallpaper.
10.5 Leopard
Complete with a revised, unified user interface and shiny new Dock, 10.5 broke the Aqua mold. As such, Leopard was the first version of OS X to break from the Aqua-themed wallpaper. It ushered in the “space era” of OS X wallpapers, which was used heavily in the new Time Machine interface as well.
10.6 Snow Leopard
The “no new features” mantra for Snow Leopard didn’t ban a new wallpaper, thankfully. This starscape is still one of my favorites.
10.7 Lion
Lion kept up the space theme, this time showing off the Andromeda galaxy. The space nerd in me likes the idea, but the execution of this one leaves dead-last on my list of favorites.
10.8 Mountain Lion
Just like Snow Leopard before it, with Mountain Lion, Apple opted to clean up and revise the existing theme as opposed to changing directions for what would be a less-impactful release of OS X.
10.9 Mavericks
Mavericks marked the beginning of Apple’s “California location” naming scheme for Mac releases. The wave depicted looks as intimidating as the ones in the famous surfing location.
10.10 Yosemite
Yosemite brought another UI refresh to the Mac, making things flatter and more modern. The wallpaper ushered in a new era based on … well … mountains.
10.11 El Capitan
Named after a breathtaking spot in Yosemite National Park, El Capitan was a clean-up year after 10.10.
10.12 Sierra
More mountains.
10.13 High Sierra
Even more mountains.
10.14 Mojave
No more mountains! Mojave brought a new system-wide Dark Mode, and the OS shipped with two versions of its default wallpaper to match. Users could even have macOS slowly fade between the two background images over the course of the day.
Download 5K versions:
10.15 Catalina
macOS Catalina brought big changes to the Mac, including the ability to run iPad apps natively, opening the platform up to a much larger number of developers than ever before. Catalina shipped with multiple variants of its default wallpaper, and the ability to shift between them as time progresses throughout the day:
Download 6K versions:
macOS Big Sur
This version of macOS is such a big deal, Apple changed the version number to 11.0. It will be the OS that brings support for Apple Silicon-powered Macs, and features a brand new design.
Download 6K versions:
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Overview
Unique wallpapers have been always the memo of MacTrast. We bring you new backgrounds to refresh the look of your favorite Apple device, whether it is a Mac, Apple Watch, iPhone, or iPad. Updated every weekend, we source the best wallpapers from the web.
Mac Wallpapers
Find more Mac wallpapers here.
Apple Watch Wallpapers
iPhone Wallpapers
Scroll down to see some of our favorites. However, for the full gallery of our iPhone wallpapers, follow this link.
iPad Wallpapers
Instructions to set your wallpaper
On Mac
- From your Mac, click your mouse pointer on one of the images to see full resolution.
- Right-click or CTRL-Click on the image, and click on “Save Image As…” to save the image to your Mac’s hard drive.
- Right-click or CTRL-click on your desktop, and select “Change Desktop Background…”
- Click the “+” button at the bottom of the left panel.
- Navigate to the directory you saved the wallpaper in, and double-click the wallpaper filename.
In Safari, you can just right-click on the image in the browser and click “Use Image As Desktop Picture.” This command both changes the desktop AND saves the image.
Apple Wallpaper For Mac Catalina
On Apple Watch
- From your iPhone, link to the full resolution image by tapping the individual images.
- When the new window opens, tap the Safari Extensions icon in the bottom area of your browser, (it looks like a box with an up arrow sticking out of it), and tap “Save image” to save the image to your Photo Library.
- After you’ve saved all of the wallpapers you’d like to use, open the Photos app on your iPhone and move the new images to the album you use to share images with you Apple Watch.
- Now you can go to your Apple Watch, select the new wallpaper as a watch face, and customize it to your heart’s content.
If you do download several of the wallpapers and move them to your Watch, you can even set them to rotate between them each time you view your watch face.
On iPhone
- From your idevice, visit to the full resolution image by tapping the individual image.
- When the new window opens, tap the Safari Extensions icon in the bottom area of your browser, (it looks like a box with an up arrow sticking out of it).
- Scroll to the right and tap “Save image” to save the image to your Photo Library.
- Open your Phone Library, select the image you want and tap the share button.
- Scroll to the right and tap “Use as Wallpaper.”
On iPad
Apple Wallpapers For Desktop
- From your idevice, visit to the full resolution image by tapping the individual image.
- When the new window opens, tap the Safari Extensions icon in the bottom area of your browser, (it looks like a box with an up arrow sticking out of it).
- Scroll to the right and tap “Save image” to save the image to your Photo Library.
- Open your Phone Library, select the image you want and tap the share button.
- Scroll to the right and tap “Use as Wallpaper.”